Self Reflection Activity - Communication

Engage Fundamentals Self-Reflection Activity Communication Take some time to reflect on the last difficult conversation you had. What made it difficult? The last difficult conversation I had was with a patient during clinicals. I was communicating with a patient who was 86 and was recently diagnosed with Dementia. The reason why it was hard to communicate with the patient was because he didn't really understand what I was talking about and everytime I would ask him something, he would answer my question with answers that didnt make sense. It was also difficult for me personally because i'm a deep thinker and that situation made me think that at one point in his life he wasn't always like this What role did you play in the conversation? In this conversation I played the communicator and sender role. I was the sender because I was the one assessing to see if the patient was oriented X3. I did this by asking the patient "What is your name", "What time is it", and "Where are you at". Although the patient didnt answer the questions correctly he was still considered the reciever because he was the one answering the questions. How did it end? The patient was really only able to answer one of my questions which was the one about his name. That really made me sad but I had to realize that because the patient had dementia that he couldnt really understand what was going on. I did the let patient know that he answered the questions wrong in a passive mannert. The patient thought that it was 11:45 pm and he was in a nursing but i politely informed him that it was 7:45am and that he was at baptist hospital. Now, consider the many difficult conversations that take place in health care organizations every day. What role does the nurse play in communication with patients, families, and other members of the health care team? In my opinion a nurse can play the teacher, communicator, and motivator role. If you are in a nursing you have to be able to communicate because if you arent able to communicate to the other nurses, how are they going to know what to expect whenever they walk into your patients room. The nurse also plays the teacher role because whenever its time for a patient to get discharged the nurse teaches basics human needs for patients so they are able to take care of theirselves once they leave the hospital. The nurse also plays the motivator role because as nurses we try to encourage people to be happy and have a positive outcome even when know things are bad. Reflect on the many tools and strategies you are learning in order to maintain therapeutic communication. How can you work on improving your own communication with others? In my opinion I think I need to work on my facial expressions. Even though we are wearing mask whenever I walk in a patients room and smell something that is unpleasent I always feel myself make a face under my mask. I need to fix this because I never want to make a patient feel ashamed of what they have done and also because there is gonna come a time where we are no longer going to have to wear mask and I would hate to make a face in front of a patient. Another thing I need to work on is my passive communication. I've always never been a big fan of conflict so when someone says something that is wrong I just leave it alone because i don't want to start anything. If i work on my passive communication it'll better prepare me for these situations because I would know how to say things while also not offending the person.